Products shipped to retail club stores such as Costco, BJ's and Sam's Club, for example, are commonly displayed for sale to the public in the bulk container in which the products were shipped. For most products, placing the container on the floor is not satisfactory because the consumer would have to bend over to closely view and/or access the product. It is preferable, therefore, to support the container in an elevated position to bring the product to eye level and make it more easily accessible to the consumer. Since product shipped in bulk containers typically is palletized, extra pallets become available at the retail establishment as product is sold and containers are emptied. It is a common practice for the retailer to stack several of these pallets on top of one another and to support the container on top of the stack of pallets in order to elevate the container to a suitable position.
Because a stack of pallets is unsightly, a skirt has been developed for placement around the stack to hide it from view. The currently available skirt is an open-ended tubular structure having a fixed height dimension and one or more pleated corners that enable the width and length dimensions of the skirt to be collapsed to a reduced perimeter size so that it can be placed on top of the pallet and around the product for shipping. In this regard, palletized bulk containers generally do not extend to the edges of the pallet but are inset from the edges, whereby the edges of the pallet project beyond the perimeter of the container. The collapsed skirt is supported on these projecting edges. At the point of display and sale, after the palletized bulk container of product is placed on a stack of empty pallets to support the container in an elevated position, the pleated corners are unfolded to expand the skirt to a larger perimeter size to enable it to be moved from around the container of product and slid down over the stack of pallets to hide them from view.
One example of a packaging system for shipping product to a point of sale comprises a palletized bulk container with length and width dimensions of 44×36 inches and a height dimension of approximately 17 inches, shipped on a 48×40 inch pallet, whereby the outer edges of the pallet project approximately 2 inches beyond the perimeter of the container. In order to support this container at approximately eye level, or at an elevation of about 3 feet, it and the pallet on which it is shipped are supported on a stack of 6 empty pallets. Accordingly, in order for the presently available skirt to cover and hide the stack of 6 empty pallets plus the pallet on which the product is shipped, it must have a height dimension of approximately 35 inches. When this skirt is placed on a pallet in surrounding relationship with a container for shipping the container to a point of sale, and the container has a height of 17 inches, the upper end of the skirt extends above the top of the container by approximately 17 inches. This results in a large void space within the upper portion of the skirt extending above the container, resulting in a much larger shipping cube than necessary and making it difficult if not impossible to stack the palletized containers on top of one another without placing some form of reinforcing filler material in the void space. It should be noted that the dimensions given above are for example only and the invention has equal applicability to containers and pallets having other dimensions.
Although the currently available skirt obscures most of the stack of pallets when used in a packaging system as described above, it leaves exposed to view the top marginal surface of the pallet on which the container was shipped. More important, however, is the void space within the upper portion of the skirt above the container during shipping, as a consequence of the fixed vertical dimension of the skirt. Further, use of the conventional pallet skirt increases cost and labor for both the shipper and the retailer.
It would be desirable to have a packaging system comprising a container supported on a pallet, with a skirt adapted to cover a stack of empty pallets on which the container is supported at a point of sale, wherein the skirt covers not only the stack of pallets but also the upper marginal edges of the pallet on which the container is directly supported, and wherein the height of the skirt can be adjusted so that it does not extend above the container during shipping, thereby eliminating the void space that results with the currently available skirt.